On the surface Borderland The movie makes perfect sense. When video game mega-publisher 2K released the first installment in 2009, it quickly amassed a fanbase – one that only grew over the next 10 years, during which developers Gearbox Software and 2K Australia released a total of four installments in the franchise. Borderland bore the hallmarks of many popular games of the 2010s: quirky characters, crude humor, a unique, cartoonish visual style, a huge planet to roam, and, most importantly, procedurally generated weapons (known as loot) that allowed players to shoot aliens until they exploded into a mixture of blood and guts. This formula resonated well with players and led to critical acclaim, many millions of copies sold, and $1 billion in revenue. Based on these metrics, a move to the big screen seemed inevitable.
But that was in the 2010s, and this is now. While Borderland once captured the zeitgeist, this is hardly the case in this decade. Apart from a handful of spin-offs, the last major Borderland It was released in 2019 – five very long years ago and 10 years after the series began. Although well received, Borderlands 3 came at a time when players were turning against games of this type. The industry had begun to move away from the random, collectible-based gameplay that Borderland contributed to its popularity as completionists complained about the amount of tedious work required to find unique loot. Worse, publishers had begun abusing and degrading the system by monetizing it, incentivizing players to pay to obtain items that were technically available for free – if they wanted to spend countless hours finding them.
When Lionsgate began work on a film adaptation of the franchise in 2015, it couldn’t necessarily have predicted that the game would feel like a relic when the movie hits theaters. But by 2024, its vulgar humor has aged poorly and its characters have all but disappeared from the zeitgeist. Fans’ affection is more nostalgic and mostly for the gameplay. But now, after several rewrites and reshoots, Borderland the film has finally landed in theaters – to the delight of no one. Ironically, just as Hollywood was beginning to learn how to successfully adapt games for the screen, Borderland reminds us how not to do it. It tries to appeal to every possible audience and alienates everyone in the process: it’s a film made for absolutely no one.
A stunning cast cannot make up for a number of shortcomings
With BorderlandLionsgate has used a classic trick to attract unknown audiences to an established work: it has cast extremely famous actors in the lead roles. These names include Cate Blanchett (whose shockingly stiff red wig is the most interesting thing about her here), Kevin Hart (miscast as a stoic soldier), a nervous Jamie Lee Curtis and Jack Black, the only actor whose inclusion makes sense. Black, who was most recently known as the voice of The Super Mario Bros. Movie‘s Bowser, voices the comic relief/mascot Claptrap, a robot who talks nonstop and makes lots of jokes about poop – a very fitting cast. Barbie Starring the groundbreaking Ariana Greenblatt as a mischievous teenager, it’s a lively, if sloppy, mix.
Unfortunately, the respective fan bases of these actors do not quite match those of the two Borderland or the usual target audience of director/co-writer Eli Roth, best known for his lurid horror films. Roth’s script – originally co-written by Craig Mazin, who left the project and removed his name from it before, funnily enough, working on HBO’s critically acclaimed The Last of Us– forces this motley crew of comedians and Oscar winners into derivative formulas. Roth’s version of Borderland are in equal parts Guardians of the Galaxy, Mad MaxAnd Dragon Ballto appeal to non-gamer fans of action comedies. Roth takes the video game’s techno-futuristic desert setting and the quintet of offbeat main characters and tells a story about mismatched outsiders in space searching for a safe that contains a source of ultimate power. But the wit, style and energy of the cinematic models are missing. A moviegoer who hasn’t already invested in the franchise but is a fan of any of the knock-off films will come away disappointed at best and completely deceived at worst.
It is a shame because Borderland“Wit, style and energy are crucial to the game’s success. But the problem with translating all of that into a movie is that those qualities manifest themselves more in the graphics and gameplay than in the narrative. The characters could be obnoxious and the story superficially superficial, with much of the good stuff reduced to lore that players had to figure out for themselves. It’s the fun, over-the-top weapons that players still praise, something the movie doesn’t or can’t contain. The greatest fun of Borderland‘ Features is that there are so many weapons that players will never see them all – that spontaneity and sense of achievement when you find a particularly cool weapon disappears if you are not the one who unlocks it yourself. By focusing on creating a dynamic between different actors, Borderland sacrifices the silly world building that made the games cult objects.
Also ignored, but theoretically easier to reproduce is Borderland‘ visual style. The franchise’s cartoonish, colorful look helped it stand out from other first-person shooters of its era, which were often derided for drowning in shades of brown. Borderland‘ The art direction is inspired by graphic novels, with thick lines and hand-drawn textures to give the characters a special depth. If there were no animated adaptation of the franchise, the live-action film could have afforded the following: Think Scott Pilgrim vs. the World‘s use of scripted sound effects and bold colors. Instead, Roth made his Borderland look like the video games the franchise rejected in the late 2000s, with Blanchett’s hair standing out even more in the dreary surroundings.
Amid a renaissance of video game adaptations
There is nothing in the film that would justify the jump between media. This is a problem for fans, even those who have approached the film with great caution from the beginning. (Now that the reviews have come out, it is clear that fans loathe it even more than the average critic.) But even if the Borderland games came out, there was no reason to expect that a movie version could ever be good. Video game adaptations have been notoriously terrible for most of the medium’s existence, lacking the key elements that make the games fun. Some of this is just the nature of the beast – how do you portray how good it feels to press a certain combination of buttons in time in a non-interactive medium? But the 2020s have shown that there are ways to capture the spirit of a game in a way that doesn’t alienate fans while also attracting people who have no idea what the game is even like. Borderland‘ The inability to do both is even more evident in this landscape.
In recent years The Last of Us and Prime Video’s Stand out have raised the bar for game adaptations. First, they are more logical candidates for the live-action treatment than something like Borderland: The Last of Us is a narrative-driven shooter with a defined cast of characters, and players are encouraged to become attached to them. The emotional stakes fit well with the action gameplay, which reflects the pulse-pounding fear the characters feel as they trudge through a zombie-infested land. The television series emphasizes these qualities to create something compellingly human for average HBO viewers; tantalizingly action-packed for sci-fi fans; and impressively familiar for players of the hit games. The great cast and excellent performances are a bonus.
The Stand out The franchise is known for its well-defined setting: the post-apocalyptic remains of America, where people live in ’50s-style vaults (gamers love vaults), blissfully unaware of the wasteland (gamers love wasteland) that lies outside its walls. Recognizable but dilapidated locations stand in sharp contrast to the mutants and hideous creatures that overrun them. The TV show accurately recreates this combination, as well as the violence and wry humor that comes with it. The end result is a gripping dramedy in the style of Westworldwhose creators worked on it Stand outAt the same time, his precise feel for the game was well received by Stand out fans, as well as the attention to detail that characterizes the franchise.
For comparison: Roth’s Borderland is doomed to flop with fans and audiences. Early box office projections look bleak, especially given a budget reportedly at $120 million. That’s what happens when the film feels as dated as the games do today, with a bad script, soulless style and an inept cast. (Of all people, Kevin Hart plays the only straight man in the film.) Maybe that’s a good thing. But if it doesn’t live up to the critical highs of The Last of Uswhich was filmed around the same time, could have at least done fans a favor by paying tribute to what made the franchise so popular in its day. The kiddie Super Mario Bros. MovieFor example, it was not a hit with many critics, but it shone through its dedication to capturing the look and feel of the Mario games. Instead, Borderland is backwards; it doesn’t try hard enough to appeal to the fans who feel compelled to watch it, and it doesn’t stand out enough to attract moviegoers who have seen all the better films it steals. It just exists, boring and forgettable.
